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H&M’s First Female Boss Boosts Persson Fortune by $1.4 Billion

H&M’s First Female Boss Boosts Persson Fortune by $1.4 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Stefan Persson just got a hefty retirement gift from investors.

Hennes & Mauritz AB’s chairman, who announced Thursday he is stepping down in May, added $1.4 billion to his fortune as the clothing retailer’s shares rose 9.4% in Stockholm. His son Karl-Johan, the current chief executive officer, will take over as chairman and hand the CEO role to Chief Operating Officer Helena Helmersson, making her the first woman to run H&M.

H&M’s First Female Boss Boosts Persson Fortune by $1.4 Billion

The jump in share price reinforces the Perssons standing as Sweden’s richest family with a fortune of more than $20 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Persson, 72, said it was a “natural change” to hand control to his son after two decades as chairman. He said the family -- which owns about half of the business -- will remain committed owners of the world’s second-largest garment retailer.

H&M shares have gained about 10% since Karl-Johan became CEO in 2009, compared with the almost fourfold increase of rival Inditex, the owner of Zara. Long the go-to place for Scandinavian-inspired, well-designed staples such as blouses and jeans, H&M has ceded its role to retailers such as Primark that undercut it in price, or internet specialists like Asos Plc and Zalando SE that promise instant gratification.

Helmersson started at H&M as an economist in the purchasing department in 1997, and spent five years as sustainability manager. She’s been COO for just more than a year.

H&M reported pretax profits Thursday of 5.4 billion kronor ($560 million) in the three months ended Nov. 30, exceeding the 4.8 billion kronor that analysts had expected.

--With assistance from Andrew Heathcote.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Stupples in London at bstupples@bloomberg.net;Anton Wilen in Stockholm at awilen@bloomberg.net;Benedikt Kammel in Berlin at bkammel@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill

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